The Grey Mask

Rating: PG13

The clock ticks so slowly while doing it 360 revolution that I actually might die before it hits 1:45pm. I’m tapping the rhythm of ‘Riot’ by Three Days Grace out with my pencil on the desk. I can see the irritation building in the guys face beside me every pencil tap I do. We’re in the middle of a test and he won’t move his hand to allow me to see the correct answer to number seven. I’m trying to be patient; he’s being stubborn though. Clearly, he’s one of ‘those’ kids. You know, the ones that actually give a damn about school and have such high morals that they won’t allow someone to cheat off of them. It’s annoying to say in the least. I just want to finish this test with a decent grade so that I can get out of this class and go patrol the city.

Finally, the guy moves his hand long enough for me to see the answer’s ‘A’. I mark it down and guess on the last three problems before jumping up to turn my work in. I ask for a pass to the restroom. The teacher sighs and tells me just to take my things. She knows I won’t be back. I can read her thoughts as if it’s plastered on her face. She’s thinking I’m one of ‘those’ kids. You know, the ones that don’t give a damn about school. Well, she’s right, but I don’t care. I smirk and go collect my things. She doesn’t even bother signing a pass for me. I’m not heading to the bathroom, and she knows that. Though, I doubt she knows where I’m heading. If she only knew, she’d agree with me on how unimportant school was for me.

Static cracks on my ear wig and wince slightly before I hear it. “We’ve got alarms going off at the Falcon City bank.” And that’s where I’m heading.
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“Where have you been?” Hydro-Hit asks me as I approach him from behind. His voice is low and calm, but slightly worried.

“Traffic.” I lie immediately, taking my place beside him. Cops are beginning to gather outside the bank, but I can tell, they won’t do anything. They never do. They’re all incompetent in my opinion. None of them know what to do. They’re good for little things, like stopping a speeding car, or arresting people, but they don’t know what to do when it comes to hostage situations and robberies.

Hydro-Hit accepts the answer and starts relaying the information he’s collected so far. “We’ve got twelve hostages, about three armed henchmen and Viper on the inside.”

“Easy.” I say. “We’ve taken more.”

“Yes, but Marine Lad, there’s still innocent lives at play here, we have to be careful.” Hydro-Hit reminds me.

“Yeah, yeah.” I say shrugging him off ready for action. I wanted to get to punching, let some frustration out, but Hydro-Hit was always overly cautious. “What are they after? Money?” I ask curiously.

Hydro-Hit gives me a look before smiling playfully. He obviously thought I was joking. I supposed it should be obvious since this was a bank they were at, but stuff like that didn’t click in my brain. I just smile as if it was a joke though, because it would be embarrassing otherwise. So I guess I’d have to figure that part out myself.

“So what’s the plan?” I ask. “We jump in there, surprise them and take them out?”

“Got to get them disarmed first.” Hydro-Hit says. “We’re going to enter from the ceiling. I’ll go first, and try to distract them so you can lead the hostages out. We’ve got to get the hostages out before someone gets hurt.” He explains to me.

I nod. I’m a little disappointed that I won’t be throwing the punches, but I’m still hoping that I’ll get the hostages out before Hydro-Hit’s done taking them all out so I can go help him take everyone down. Hydro-Hit jumps down from the roof we’re on onto the roof of the bank first. I take a running start and do the same. Neither of us have a cape, because capes, as Hydro-Hit says, get in the way when trying to be stealthy or when fighting. I supposed it’s true, I couldn’t imagine having to fight someone and having extra weight and wind resistance. It would definitely slow us down, so I supposed it was for the better that we didn’t have capes.

Hydro-Hit enters the stairwell, while I take the vents. The vents are big enough for someone my size to crawl through without too much of a problem. I think Hydro-Hit might have some difficulties though trying to get through them if he were the sidekick. Though, Hydro-Hit was almost superhuman despite having no other power like some heroes.

I try to crawl quietly but mostly sliding through the vents rather than picking up limp after limp to crawl through the vent. I’ve been in the venting system here before, so I know where I’m going. I easily make my way down to the main lobby where the twelve hostages and three henchmen are. I can see Hydro-Hit’s already got one down and is working on the other two. I thrust my legs in front of me to break the hinges on the vent opening and hop down.

The noise attracts some attention from the henchmen, but Hydro-Hit takes their attention off of me quickly. I move quickly untying the hostage closest to me and motion for them to help me untie the rest. The hostage’s eyes keeps darting toward the door, meaning she’s clearly thinking of just making a run for it, but she finally decides to help untie her fellow co-workers. I’m working on untying the third hostage while she’s still working on the first. Clearly, she has no idea what she’s doing. I roll my eyes annoyed but continue what I’m doing until everyone’s untied. Finally, it’s time to get them out of the bank. They move in a herd-like way towards the door until the gun fires in our direction hitting the pillar closest to me. All the hostages duck and scream.

“Just get out!” I call to them pouncing on the guy who’s fired at the innocents. I’m grateful for the fight. I know this must mean that Hydro-Hit’s not doing well, but even still, I’m not concerned. The guy’s like a superhuman, as I said. The hostages rush outside the building as my hand reaches out and grabs the henchmen’s arm with the gun pointing it in a random direction away from the hostages and us. The gun fires again, and my knee comes up colliding with a sensitive area between the guy’s legs. He doubles over and I knock the gun from his hand. We do some hand-to-hand combat for a little bit before a few hits to the head and he’s out cold. Easy enough.

Now that the hostages are out and the two henchmen are knocked out, I’ve got to find Hydro-Hit, the third henchmen, and Viper. I decided the most probable place to search was back in the vaults. I begin making my way back ignoring the commotion outside. Moving down the hallway, I see the third henchmen. He’s down for the count with a small trickle of blood flowing from his nose. Hydro-Hit must’ve been near. I step over the body and continue back until I hear Viper’s voice.

“Where’s your Wonder Lad or whatever you call him?” Viper teases. Hydro-Hit doesn’t answer. He didn’t engage in witty banner like I liked to. He just threw punches and saved people. He’d told me that once you’d been a hero for as long as he had, you lost interest in such little things. I’d been a sidekick nearly two years and hadn’t lost interest yet.
“Right here, Snakey.” I call entering the vaults.

“Marine Lad!” Viper’s eyes light up slightly knowing he’ll have someone to do witty banner with now. I observe the scene. Hydro-Hit’s caught up in taking on some other henchmen while Viper’s standing off to the side trying to get him to talk. Though Hydro-Hit’s taking on about five men, I decide he’s got it covered and lunge for the Viper.

“Did you miss me?” I ask as he dodges the first punch leaving me a bit off balance.

“About as much as a fly misses a spider.” Viper retorted sweeping my legs from under me. I fell but rolled to the side immediately just barely dodging the punch to the face.

“So I’m the spider then?” I say jumping up smirking. He was so bad at this.

“Wait- No!” The Viper called realizing his mistake. “You’re more like a rat. And snakes eat rats!” He smirks, proud of his little insult. I roll my eyes.

“I’m a ‘Marine Lad’, how is that anything like a rat?” I ask him. He scratches his head a moment thinking about this.

“Well, you’re not like a spider either….” He points. This makes me ponder. He hits me square in the jaw waking me back up. I stumble off balance a moment before blocking the next swing.

(Will continue)